same old story
by Vskrainaek
Summary: and such is the life of a jinchūriki, rising and falling unnoticed by the march of time.
1. Chapter 1

[edit] screwy timeline fixed! And yes, I'm alive. Sorry for the long absence, but robotics kind of ate my life from January until about two weeks ago and right now I'm in the middle of testing. So…hopefully over the summer I'll be able to work a little more regularly, but don't count on it as my access to a computer will be a little more limited.

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

_Same old story, what's the use of tears? What's the use of praying if there's nobody that hears?_ Les Misérables

It was always the same. They never looked at her and saw a girl who, thanks to years of their neglect, would never grow to her full height, never have a child. All they saw was the seal around her neck and the cat's pupils in her eyes. They had never seen anything else, for she had almost never been anything else. She was never a normal child (with the voice of Death whispering in the back of her mind, promising all her she'd ever wanted if she would _just let go, _how could she?). She was never a normal kunoichi (her reflexes were such that anyone who approached her from behind or the side was liable to be maimed or killed, and others recognized that, leaving her in complete solitude). She was never a normal citizen of Kumogakure (for without the Nekomata, that is what Yugito would have been, and she cursed the demon every day of her life for it).

She never truly had parents. Her father was killed on a mission shortly after _it_ was sealed, distracted and anguished by the grief of seeing the mark of the Nibi no Nekomata writhe around his young daughter's neck, burning into the skin, leaving a mark of bones and flames and death that she would carry for the rest of her life. Her mother had abandoned her to the Raikage after the demon had been sealed into her only daughter. Shortly after, she committed suicide, electrocuting herself with one of her most powerful lightning jutsu, leaving nothing behind save dim memories of a kunoichi with eyes as blue as the midsummer sky. Thus she was left alone, a slight girl with white-gold hair wandering the streets of Kumogakure, always under the watchful gaze of ANBU. Sometimes, she tried to outrun them, but this never brought anything but brutal beatings. Sometimes, she lurked in the shadows, somehow blending in with the darkness in a way most nin never would, watching children playing in the streets with a carefree gaiety she would never know. Sometimes, looking into pools of water on the street and seeing the black markings circling around her neck like a noose, she wondered what it would be like if she had escaped fate and the demon had been sealed into someone else (but there was no point in questioning fate, because what was done was done and in her mind, she always knew that).

She simply accepted the constant, snarling rumble of hatred and death in the back of her mind as something everybody dealt with, because nobody had ever told her otherwise. When she was seven, she asked one of her guardians about it, curiosity demanding she speak to one who had never said a single word to her, never looked in her direction. He, a battle-hardened soldier who had seen too many conflicts for memory to recall, recoiled in fear and demanded to know how long she had been hearing the voice (for this had to mean the seal was breaking, that the Nekomata was making its bid for freedom to reign over Kumo in flame and blood once more). To this her simple reply was "Forever." She had immediately been grabbed by one of the ANBU, ever-present in case of the Nibi making itself known, and hauled off to the Raikage. As soon as he had been apprised of the situation, he grabbed her by the shoulders and demanded to know what the voice was telling her and if it had identified itself. His sudden movement startled her, and with a strength no malnourished seven-year-old should have had she threw him off of her. The voice began to scream for blood, demanding swift and terrible retribution for the attack. Her eyesight started to shift, sharpening and becoming almost painfully bright, pupils slitting vertically across her darkening eyes. Cracks sounded from her fingers and teeth, claws and unnaturally pointed canines ripping out from the confines of normalcy, bright blood splattering on the walls. A hot burn began in the back of her throat, heat licking through her mouth and building behind newly reformed teeth. Shock forced her mouth open and black flame spilled out (it _should _have burned her, _should_ have hurt, _should _have felt anything other than natural), reaching through the air and curling around his hands, clawing up his arms, somehow leaving both cuts and burns as it moved in for the kill. Yugito suddenly realized she was screaming, a terrible animalistic keen as she watched the fire (_her_ fire) rip apart and consume the man in front of her, the first man she would ever kill.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter two lives! Yeah, I've been intending to update this for a while, but here it is, all shiny and new! Also, PLEASE review, if only to point out a grammatical mistake, which I will not take offense to as long as you do so in a tolerable fashion (aka: no flames, please and thank you)!

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

After the death of the Sandaime, she was isolated from the general population of Kumo even more, if that was possible, moved into a tiny apartment that was on the verge of collapse. Somehow she got the idea that it would be _welcome _if the apartment fell in on her and crushed her into dust, just made her disappear (she never spent much time there, after she realized that). There were no furnishings except for a pallet bed and a miniscule kitchen she never needed to learn how to use (ration packets, soldier pills, and whatever vermin she could catch off the streets were enough for her). At just over eight years old, she became a fully-fledged kunoichi of Kumogakure no Sato, never having attended the Academy, barely having been trained at all. Her first mission was solo (they would all be, because nobody wanted to work with a demon incarnate), a pursuit that normally only a jōnin would have taken. The missing-nin she chased through the mountains of the Land of Iron laughed the first time he saw her, expecting at least a team of chūnin and jōnin to be in his pursuit. The Nibi, enraged at this slight, roared inside her mind and began to push its way out again. Terrified that the incident with the Raikage would be repeated, she clamped down on the pain building throughout her body and held it back, refusing to let the demon take over again. Then, for the first time, the Nekomata spoke directly to Yugito.

_Child, you must let me go. Did you hear what he was saying about us? He insulted us, he _laughed_ at us. I can make him suffer for what he has done, to us and others. All you have to do is relax. I promise, it won't hurt at all._

The demon lied. The transformation hurt more than anything Yugito had ever felt (more than the starving winter nights, more than the beatings she took from other ninja, more than the flames of the mobs burning down her home around her). The blue and black chakra flame characteristic of the Nibi raced over her skin, consuming her as the transformation continued, melting and burning as it went. Her bones snapped, reforming into a larger and stronger structure with speed that defied belief. Finally, she stood before the terrified nin with eyes full of death and flame, enraged at everything (at the man, at the Nibi, at herself). He collapsed, and Yugito slowly reached out, gaining control of her new body, lifting him and pinning his fragile form against the mountain rock.

_Good, girl. Just like that. Make him fear you. Make him know in the depths of his mind that this will be the last thing he ever sees, that though he has thus far evaded Kumo's forces, he will not escape you. This, dear heart, is what it means to be alive._

With the slightest push forward, she cracked his ribs against the rock, bringing her claws around him to deal the final blow. Before she ripped into him, however, she realized he was already dead. Primal terror had killed the man before she had ever touched him. The Nekomata roared in satisfaction, and she realized she was roaring too, screaming her defiance to the empty night sky, wild and primal and free (but there was no response from the dead moon and black-light stars).

When she returned to Kumo, she wasn't surprised to see shock on the face of the new Raikage. They had expected her to die before she got a single attack in, a nice, neat mission fatality that could be recorded on a scroll and immediately forgotten about. As they blankly stared at her, she wanting the sudden reappearance of Kumo's bane to be some kind of trick, she began to laugh (a low, terrifying, _old_ sound that clawed its way up her scarred throat and burst out into the room, curling through the air and rumbling through his ears). The sound of the Nekomata terrified him, bringing memories of an army of dead marching on Kumo, flames engulfing the walls, the streets running with blood. As he watched, her pupils began to dilate, spreading like flames through her eyes, leaving them black and merciless. Black chakra welled up in Yugito's throat, scorching hot and dripping with her blood, as the Nibi began to speak.

_Oh, you mortal fool. You believed that some second-rate missing-nin who couldn't even make it out of Lightning without being detected could kill the girl when I am with her? I, the Nibi no Nekomata, am the terror of Kumo and killer of the Sandaime Raikage, bane of the living and queen of the dead for time immemorial. It would be in your best interests to leave her alone and not concern yourself with this any further. She will be the silent killer you seem to have forgotten, the terror of your enemies in the dark of the night. All you must do is leave her to me and not interfere where you do not belong._

After the first (and only) time the Nibi spoke to the Yondaime Raikage, they were left alone. No more ANBU shadowed her every footstep, no more jōnin dogged her every movement, constantly telling her what to do. Now, it was just her and the demon alone in her head. She would do her best to cut the constant rumbling of hatred and vengeance out of her everyday thoughts, but when nighttime came and she roamed the desolate rooftops, the Nibi came to the forefront of her mind. Constantly cajoling, wheedling, and reasoning, the demon's sole objective was to _get out_, escape the confines of the seal once again and cause destruction and terror the likes of which had never been seen before. But when she slept, it was the worst.

_A figure appeared in the mist, gliding through it on silent feet that bespoke years of training. When it became clearly visible, it was revealed to be a woman of unearthly beauty wearing a blue kimono and white obi, with her white-blond hair in two long braids, wrapped with fabric and swaying with all manner of charms and talismans. She approached a small figure curled up in the fetal position on the ground, and reached out a hand. When her clawed fingertips touched the child, it leapt up with preternatural grace, flinging a handful of kunai and screaming out a battle cry. The lady laughed gently and caught all the knives, swinging them around her fingers and running cruel claws over the sharp edges. The child, a young girl of not more than nine years, snarled at the woman as her weapons were destroyed. Looking over with a smirk, the woman raised an eyebrow and remarked _"You ought to be a little less…attached…to your toys, dear one. They weren't going to last forever, you know. And besides, you should be a little more _grateful_, don't you think? I _have_ saved your pathetic little skin on more than one occasion, and if you keep going at this rate you won't be able to survive a day without calling on me. You never know, one day I may not deign to respond and you'll be all on your own. So, you really ought to be a _little_ nicer to me, child."

_At this, the girl let out an angry breath, hissing a long string of words a child her age had no right knowing. In response, the lady only laughed, the gentle chiming giving way to a grating rumble as the air in front of the woman's face shattered like glass. Her beautiful features distorted, revealing the visage of a gigantic cat wreathed in blue and black flames. The girl screamed and the demon roared in triumph, slashing its claws through the thin fabric of her dream and sending her back to the hell of her waking life._


End file.
